The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-02-12
RHEUMATISM.
Many Theories Arc Advanced Con.
corning the Disease, But Its
Cause Is Unknown.

Cause Is Unknown.
The fact that Gen. Logan died the
victim of a long and painful attack OF
rheumatism, and that President Cleve-
land and Mayor Hewitt are both suffer
ing from the disease, is just at present
the topic of considerable discussion,
says The New York IPorld. The recur-
renee of the disease with such severe
effects in public men of such note is ma
turaliy attracting attention among all
classes Of the people.
Rheumatism is disease with which
nearly everybody is acquainted to a
greater or less extent 1t strikes with.
out respect TO station, and not only in
capaclates the people from their labors
during the severe period of its pres
ence in the human body, but even when
it disappears under that form of treat
ment to which il is subjected it does so
almost invariably to reappear sooner
OF later, if not in the same place, yet in a
locality just as painful and il may bo
more dangerous.
Every public man of any conse-
quence has been at one time or another
n sufferer from rheumatism said
well-known physician. who has attend
ed many of the prominent men OF 1.-The
country. Yet rheumatism, he con
tinued, lis not by any means confined
to any particular class. 1t spares Meth
er the statesman nor the mechanic, the
merchant prince nor the common day
laborer. II appears in both sexes, but
most commonly in the male. 1t strikes
the young ms well as the cid, and il
found in people of all ages and, in fact
in all races OF mankind. While
it is not in itself a necessa'
rally fatal disease yet rheumatism
sometimes results in death. The great
est danger, however, from Rheumatism
is in its undoubted tendency to create
complications in the human system
which are in themselves the direct
cause of death. Statistics show that
in given one hundred cases of rhcu-
mat SIN only three deaths occur as the
direct effect of the disease. Yet it is a
dangerous disease, nevertheless, be-
cause 1t engenders complications of the
heart, the kidneys, the lungs, and the
brain, which, without the greatest pre-
caution, may in many cases end in the
sufferers death. With Gen. Logan, an
athletic iron-framed man of prodigi-
Gus strength, the disease. after long
and fugitive course, settled in the
brain. and complications resulted which
cost the gallant soldier his life. hJ'
lieve that very many cases OF what Is
called heart disease are the effect OF
rheumatism.
A reporter who called upon several
of the leading practitioners OF the city
was unable TO get any of them to ex-
press a we'll defined opinion rs to either
the nature or proper treatment of rheu-
matism. you want whole truths,
not half truths, in discussing such II
subject" said one, land am not IN
position TO give on positive and indis-
putable Information about rheuma-
tism." Said another physician; "All
argument about this or that theory OF
rheumatism must be essentially post
hoc-that is, synihetical rather than
ANALYTICAL. While | myself find but
little difficulty in curing rheumatism,
vet 1t can not be said that there is any
one theory well proven as yet" All
of the physicians questioned talked in
in similar vein. They said that there
was no theory Of rheumatism that had
irrevocably been proven to be the cor
rect one. The profess on. they all adj
mitted, was at loggerheads about rheu-
matism.